A practical transmitter device for passive state BB84 quantum key distribution
Yury Kurochkin, Marios Papadovasilakis, Anton Trushechkin, Rodrigo, Piera, James A. Grieve

TL;DR
This paper presents a simplified, passive quantum key distribution transmitter that combines state preparation and QRNG, demonstrated over 10 km fiber with a practical secret key rate, enhancing security and reducing complexity.
Contribution
A novel passive QKD transmitter design that integrates state preparation and QRNG, simplifying implementation and improving security against side-channel attacks.
Findings
Successfully established a 10 km fiber QKD link
Achieved a secret key rate of 110 bits/sec
Demonstrated practical deployment potential in urban networks
Abstract
In prepare-and-measure quantum key distribution systems, careful preparation of quantum states within the transmitter device is a significant driver of both complexity and cost. Moreover, the security guarantees of such systems rest on the correct operation of high speed quantum random number generators (QRNGs) and the high-fidelity modulation of weak optical signals by high-speed optoelectronic devices, all of which must be hardened against a variety of known side-channel attacks. A fully passive state preparation approach elegantly resolves these problems by combining state preparation and QRNG stages into a single optical instrument. By using pairs of optical pulses from a gain-switched laser diode as ready-to-use qubits, the QKD transmitter can be radically simplified, eventually comprising a single laser and local phase tomography stage. We demonstrate our simplified transmitter…
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Taxonomy
TopicsQuantum Information and Cryptography
